I’M ALL READY TO GO INTO BAT FOR MY DADDY

THE gloves might al­ready be off in the de­bate over whether Steve Smith and David Warner should be al­lowed to re­join the strug­gling Aus­tralian cricket team, but no­body told Warner’s daugh­ter Indi Rae.

She’s just rel­ish­ing the time she gets to hang out with her dad.

Calls for the star pair to be re­in­stated have been grow­ing louder by the day and were deaf­en­ing at yes­ter­day’s Smith v Warner show­down at Coogee Oval.

Billed as the big­gest match in the Syd­ney grade com­pe­ti­tion for decades, thou­sands packed into the ground to see Aus­tralia’s two pre­mier bats­men go head to head as Rand­wick played Suther­land.

Warner scored just 13 but it meant he had more time to spend with wife Candice and chil­dren Ivy Mae, 4, and Indi Rae, 2. Warner de­lighted fans by not only sign­ing au­to­graphs but tak­ing a nine-yearold boy — who had come all the way from Bal­larat to see him play — on a lap of the oval.

Smith scored 48 but had only two spe­cial guests, wife Dani and the cou­ple’s puppy Char­lie, who lapped up the at­ten­tion.

For­mer Test skip­per Steve Waugh — whose son Austin plays for Suther­land and got Warner out — was also in the crowd.

Indi Rae tries on Warner’s gloves whileSmith showed he’s ready to take the lead again — at least with his new puppy. Pic­tures:Jenny Evans